Here are some of my own poems. Please read at your own risk . . .
Feeling at Home So Much
Territorial squirrels chirping madly, defending their trees,
remind me of ego’s paranoid grasping at space
and make me feel at home so much
Cows storming in and people running after them
remind me of rushing after the afflictions’ stampede that leaves nothing but the droppings
and make me feel at home so much
Whales suddenly emerging from the depths and sinking back effortlessly
remind me of thoughts popping up and leaving no trace
and make me feel at home so much
Thick mist pressing in, eating up space and light,
reminds me of ignorance’s narcotic cloud
and makes me feel at home so much
Oozing septic field finding its way through the ground
reminds me of habitual tendencies seeping into my mind
and makes me feel at home so much
Unbearably red flowers opening their petals towards the sun
remind me of compassion’s raw heart taking in all beings
and make me feel at home so much
Brilliant sun in boundless sky, so open and clear,
reminds me of ever-present luminous heart-expanse
and makes me feel at home so much
Dharma friends kindling the flame of wisdom with the oil of confidence
remind me of what is truly precious and the guru’s presence
and make me want to come back
Gampo Abbey, May 21, 2000.
Fisherman’s Friend
The brisk baby fish of natural awareness
tries to wriggle through the seaweed forest of mind’s proliferations
Again and again, it gets caught by kleśa fishermen throwing their treacherous nets
Allow the movement of your own mind’s ripples to settle down within itself
Within the open vastness of the ocean of non-conceptuality,
in the middle of the exuberant dance of bliss bubbles,
relish the pure waters of translucent luminosity
and rest at ease on a small corner of buddha mind
Brabrand, August 10, 2002.
A Burning Ring of Fire
Burn burn burn —
the everlasting flame of great bliss
In the sky of naked rigpa,
open, spacious, and relaxed,
emptiness with a heart of compassion
I see the empty yoginī,
milking and drinking
the sky-like yogī
Warszaw 09. 04. 2018; partly inspired by Saraha’s Milking Song.
Election Day — We Do Have The Choice
Your ego may seem to win,
but your compassion will lose
Your clinging may seem to win,
but your being open, spacious, and relaxed will lose
Your anger may seem to win,
but your tender heart will lose
Your righteousness may seem to win,
but your buddha heart free from bias will lose
Your PC-ness may seem to win,
but your devotion will lose
How much do you care about the small losses of ego-territory,
when you can win the universe of buddha mind?
Written to Lisa G, November 17, 2016.
A Praise to Three Dzogchen Gurus
Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
In the middle of the lotus source of alpha purity and innate presence,
the luminous display of blissful empty awareness plays effortlessly
and the whirl of rapture of the ḍākinīs’ lord of dance shines forth
The activity of the guru beyond space, time, and mind is precious!
Namka Ösal (First Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche)
In the primordially pure sky of expanse and awareness,
luminosity free of directions pervades the five wisdoms
Wisdom’s own light keeps radiating all kinds of bindus
The playful dance of rainbow bodies benefits all beings
Sungrab Ngedön Tenpé Gyaltsen (Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche)
Bestowing nothing but the definitive meaning of the Dzogchen discourses,
holding the victory banner of the vajra of the completely perfect teachings,
giving the perfect directionless instructions in the gap between east and west,
oh Dzogchen guru, please keep pointing this out in an inexhaustible manner!
རྫོགས་ཆེན་བླ་མ་གསུམ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ །།
ཀ་དག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་པད་མ་བྱུང་གནས་དབུས །།
བདེ་སྟོང་རིག་པའི་གསལ་རྩལ་འབད་མེད་རོལ །།
མཁའ་འགྲོའི་གར་དབང་དགའ་འཁྱིལ་སྣང་ །
གུ་རུ་ཡུལ་དུས་བློ་འདས་ཕྲིན་ལས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ །།
དབྱིངས་རིག་ནམ་མཁའ་ཡེ་ནས་དག་པ་ལ །།
ཕྱོགས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་ཡེ་ཤེས་ལྔ་ལ་ཁྱབ །།
ཡེ་ཤེས་རང་འོད་ཐིག་ལེ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྤྲོས །།
འཇའ་ལུས་རོལ་གར་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ལ་ཕན །།
རྫོགས་ཆེན་གསུང་རབ་ངེས་དོན་ཁོ་ན་སྟེར །།
བསྟན་པ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་རྡོ་རྗེའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་འཆང་ །
ཤར་ནུབ་མཚམས་ལ་ཕྱོགས་མེད་གདམས་རྫོགས་སྟོན །།
རྫོགས་ཆེན་བླ་མས་རྫོགས་མེད་ངོ་སྤྲོད་གསོལ །།
This originated in a mind sleepless in Seattle, July 25, 2020.
A Song of Ground, Path, and Fruition in Terms of Being Clear and Aware
The entire variety of mental states that are clear and aware—
deluded appearances of the triad of perceiver, perceived, and awareness—is one
The three kinds of prajñās, in their being clear and aware,
are the undeluded essence of the stages of paths and bhūmis
The natural state of mind as such that is clear and aware
is the fundamental ground beyond delusion and non-delusion
The clear and aware nondual expanse free from thoughts
is the supreme, wide-open field of being clear and aware
From it, the rain of compassion’s flowers keeps pouring—amazing!
གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུའི་གླུ །།
གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་བློ་སྣ་ཚོགས །།
གཟུང་འཛིན་རིག་གསུམ་འཁྲུལ་སྣང་གཅིག །
གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་ཤེས་རབ་གསུམ །།
ས་ལམ་རིམ་པའི་མ་འཁྲུལ་ངོ་ །།
གསལ་ཞིང་རིག་པའི་སེམས་ཉིད་ངང་ །།
འཁྲུལ་དང་མ་འཁྲུལ་ལས་འདས་གཤིས །།
གསལ་རིག་གཉིས་མེད་རྟོག་བྲལ་དབྱིངས །།
གསལ་རིག་ཞིང་མཆོག་ཟང་ཐལ་ལས །།
སྙིང་རྗེའི་མེ་ཏོག་འཆར་འབབ་མཚར །།
Buddhapāda, Kalimpong, March 8, 2024.
A Letter From Stainless Expanse and Awareness: A Casual Summary of Maitreya’s Uttaratantra
Unconditioned, effortless, and not to be realized through something other,
omniscience, love, and power are a buddha’s perfection of the two benefits
This is the ultimate refuge that is completely without granting and taking—
don’t look for anything other than your own mind’s present luminous expanse!
Being inconceivable, free from the dual, and without any thoughts,
purity, clarity, and remedy—the two realities of cessation and path
True dharma of scriptures and realization, vastness free of being and nonbeing—
the dharmakāya’s self-radiance is displayed as what’s to be practiced and realized
Suchness, extent, and vision of inner primordial awareness,
free from any attachment, unimpeded, and unsurpassable—
these constitute the qualities of awareness and liberation
The awareness that the basic way of being of our own mind
serves as the remedy for the entirety of dualistic appearances
is the saṃgha’s freedom, the oneness of how things appear and truly are
Three reasons, a tenfold presentation, and nine examples show the disposition—
those who have confidence in that will come to recognize their own face
Our buddha heart empty of what is adventitious, yet not empty of qualities
is nothing but the ultimate definitive meaning, so that we let go of the five flaws
Endowed with twofold purity, the cause of awareness in equipoise and thereafter,
the result free from the two obscurations, the two benefits, possessing the qualities,
three kāyas, permanence as long as space and beings exist, and inconceivability—
ground, path, and result are nowhere to be seen, and awakening is right here
Ten powers, four fearlessnesses, and unique qualities are freedom’s qualities,
and the major marks and minor characteristics are the qualities of maturation
They are not conditioned, previously nonexistent, or attained through effort
but are the primordial qualities of our own mind, similar to fire and its heat
Completely effortless and uninterrupted enlightened activity is a great marvel:
nine examples illustrate the accomplishment of thought-free spontaneous deeds
Even in the expanse without remainder beings’ welfare is always displayed in an all-encompassing way—
only those who lack confidence in their own heart have doubts about this!
The benefit is that bodhisattvas become the vessels of the qualities of buddhas
Even mere faith in this is superior to any accumulations of generosity and such
To take the definitive heart of the matter as something that is merely expedient
comes down to nothing but the negative karma of rejecting the genuine dharma,
but even that is freed on the spot in the vastness of our own heart’s awareness revealed
Kamalashila Institut, Wachendorf, May 1994.
Calling the Lama from Afar
May the slack breeze of my doubting groping and reserved opening up rapidly grow into the stormy winds of unconditioned surrender and openness that does not shy away from anything!
May its irresistible force gather the huge cloud banks of your blessings´ power within the vibrant vastness of the sky of expanse and bliss inseparable!
May the glistening lightning of your untamable enlightened energy blast the decayed trunk of my grasping onto a self into a rain of sparks of boundless joy!
May the resounding thunder of your electrifying speech forever silence the off-key choir of my thoughts’ afflicting chatter!
May I realize through the dance of the snowflakes of your compassionate inspiration that effortlessly and inseparably melt into the still lake of my mind that it is truly unborn!
May the gentle rain of your maturing blessings make the unique flower of wishlessness that fulfills all wishes bloom in the stony field of my being!
Just as the air is clear and the sun shines even more brilliant after a purifying thunder storm, may the obscurations of my delusion dissolve into themselves and innate wisdom radiate in a way that is unimpeded and beyond time!
In the light of this buddha-sun, may all appearances manifest as the iridescent display of rainbows within the vast sky of my mind
Karma Tjø Phel Ling, February 1993.
The Feast of Rigpa
Within the sparkling palace of appearance-emptiness,
the supreme royal couple of awareness-emptiness
feasts on the multi-flavored banquet of luminosity-emptiness
and relishes the single taste of bliss-emptiness
Seattle, in the 2000s.
A Toast to OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ
OṂ — Transparency of body meets transparency of the world
ĀḤ — Speechless breath of life enjoys the cloud of swirling scents
HŪṂ — Substantial bindu melts into the ocean of bliss-emptiness mind
Seattle, January 20, 2009.
Another Toast to OṂ ĀḤ HŪṂ
OṂ — The ice sculptures of dualistic clinging to perceiver and perceived dissolve into the vast ocean of nondual appearance-emptiness
ĀḤ — The cloudbanks of clarity-emptiness billow and float brightly in the luminous sky of samādhi
HŪṂ — A gentle drizzle of bindus of bliss-emptiness melts into the glacier lake of the single indestructible bindu
Clouds in the Sky
Sentient beings do not have obscurations—
sentient beings themselves are the obscurations
Beings do not have the tathāgata heart—
beings float within the tathāgata heart,
being similar to clouds and the open sky
There are no obscurations apart from sentient beings
There is no buddhahood apart from the tathāgata heart
In order for the tathāgata heart to become revealed,
there is no means besides sentient beings vanishing,
similar to the luminous sky that is free from clouds
སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་མེད །།
སེམས་ཅན་རང་ཉིད་སྒྲིབ་པ་ཡིན །།
འགྲོ་བར་དེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་མེད །།
འགྲོ་བ་དེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོར་འཕྱོ །།
སྤྲིན་དང་ནམ་མཁའ་གུ་ཡངས་བཞིན །།
སེམས་ཅན་ལས་ནི་སྒྲིབ་པ་མེད །།
དེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་ལས་སངས་རྒྱས་མེད །།
དེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་མངོན་གྱུར་ལ །།
སེམས་ཅན་ཡལ་ལས་ཐབས་གཞན་མེད །།
སྤྲིན་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་ནམ་མཁའ་ལྟར །།
July 17, 2016.
Cremation
Dancer of fire
Dancer of bliss
Dancer of space
Dancer of mind —
May the fire of bliss in mind’s spaciousness burn away
the fog of delusion and illuminate the sky of rigpa!
EMAHO!
Seattle, April 15, 2021 (for Stuart; inspired by photos of the cremation of Düjom Rinpoche’s daughter).
Dog Dharma
Get up, old dog,
feed the young dog
Old dog sitting at his desk,
young dog sitting on top of it
Oldie staring at Windows,
doggy out of the window
Old man working the keyboard,
fresh dog his bone
Dharma dog thinking about the Buddha’s words,
Tibetan lion dog about mine
Man walking the dog,
dog wagging the man—
what’s the difference?
Just two dogs trying to be human
Does a dog have buddha nature?
Who knows—anyway, this one surely pokes mine
Brabrand, May 25, 2006.
Dust in my mind
I close my eyes, only for a moment, and my mind is gone
All my dreams pass before my mind, just luminosity
Dust in my mind
All I am is dust in my mind
Same old song, just a drop of kleśa in an endless sea
All we do merges with this ground though we refuse to see
Waves on the sea
All I am is waves on the sea
Don’t hang on, nothing lasts forever but this open sky
Thoughts slip away, all your clinging won’t another minute buy
Light in the sky
All there is is light in the sky
Early 2000s; inspired by Dust in The Wind by Kansas.
Dzogchen Dedication
In the open vastness of alpha-purity,
may the face of rigpa of all beings
recognize itself and never forget!
In the luminosity of innate presence,
may this face then serve as a mirror
for all other sentient beings’ faces!
Dzogchen-Widmung
In der offenen Weite der Alpha-Reinheit,
möge sich das Rigpa-Antlitz aller Wesen
selbst erkennen und nie wieder vergessen!
In der lichten Klarheit innewohnender Präsenz,
möge dieses Antlitz dann als Spiegel dienen
für das Antlitz aller anderen Lebewesen!
München, 31. 08. 2023.
Excitillation
The full moon of bodhicitta
illuminates the mandala of great bliss
Shadow and light, day and night
Sparks of rigpa’s display dance through the expanse
Munich, 12. 10. 2017.
For Damayonti
Oh gracious lady of awareness, within the mirror of your own mind,
the reflections of the illusory display of all kinds of appearances dawn
Immovable awareness without adopting and rejecting shines lucidly
The sun of love radiates from the center of the expanse
རིག་མ་རང་གི་སེམས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང་ལ །།
སྣང་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་སྒྱུ་རྩལ་གཟུགས་བརྙན་ཤར །།
སྤང་བླང་མེད་པའི་གཡོ་མེད་རིག་པ་གསལ །།
བྱམས་པའི་ཉི་མ་དབྱིངས་ཀྱིས་དབུས་ནས་མཆེད །།
Kathmandu, 24. 04. 2019.
Good appetite
When seemingly outer phenomena and seemingly inner mind
are blended into one in the middle without reference point,
just like a person digesting a delicious self-prepared meal,
your own mind-stream becomes self-satisfied
and you gain mastery over accomplishing the benefit of others
Guru Yoga
It is the sun of the guru that shines down onto the ocean of devotion
All kinds of appearances of means dance in spontaneously swirling ecstasy
The prajñā-eye of the disciples opens and glimpses lucid appearance
May the dynamic energy of mind as such, self-appearing and free in itself, be realized
Es ist die Sonne des Gurus, die auf den Ozean der Hingabe herab strahlt
Allerlei Erscheinungen an Methoden tanzen in spontan wirbelnder Ekstase
Das Prajñā-Auge der Schüler öffnet sich und erblickt licht-klares Erscheinen
Möge die spielerische Dynamik des Geistes an sich, selbst-erscheinend und frei in sich selbst, erkannt sein!
མོས་གུས་རྒྱ་མཚོར་བླ་མའི་ཉི་མ་ཤར །།
སྣ་ཚོགས་ཐབས་སྣང་དགའ་འཁྱིལ་ལྷུན་གར་ཁྲབ །།
སློབ་མའི་ཤེས་རབ་མིག་འབྱེད་གསལ་སྣང་མཐོང་ །།
རང་ཤར་རང་གྲོལ་སེམས་ཉིད་རྩལ་རྟོགས་ཤོག །
Starnberg, 8. 12. 2023.
Happy Inside Out
Just as there is no blazing fire without heat,
there are no afflictions without suffering
Focus on accomplishing inner unconditioned happiness
and regard outer happiness like a beautiful dream
Inner ease—luminous cloud banks of blissful openness—sparkles
When it grows, outer happiness is outshone like the morning star
If you want to reside on the king’s throne,
don’t get your mind distracted by a beggar’s party
To obtain all you wish and need is not happiness—
happiness is self-liberation of all wishes and needs within openness’s basic expanse
Relish the web of magical illusions as the crown ornament of primordial awareness
High-Lands
Boundless deep blue sky above
Sharp crystal-white rock below
Effulgent yellow larches ahead
Blazing red bushes left and right
Lush green foliage in between
In the center of this swirling mandala of the elements
dwells the queen of greet bliss,
gently smiling in the middle of my heart
Is all this really shining outside,
or is it just a lucid dream in my mind,
or is it somewhere in between?
The watcher is overwhelmed by this dance
and just forgets about looking,
merging into the panorama’s vividness
This nature so untouched
is roamed by an untouchable,
deeply touched
by touching in
Gampo Abbey, November 3, 2005
Hocus focus
The knot of laboring thoughts focusing on the generation stage
ties up non-focal and non-dual appearance-emptiness
Through the lasso of just focusing on apprehending characteristics,
spontaneously present self-radiance is tightly chained
Since the dharmakaya’s own light shines intrinsically,
you try to stop the unstoppable, if you do generation stage with focus
Focus on what cannot be focused through focusing
Within the natural state of not focusing, the focus will appear
Not sustaining fundamental ease and meditating on mental imagery
just helps your thoughts to proliferate
Home
For most people it is where they were born
For ordinary beings, it is where their family and friends are
For yuppies, it is where their work is
For monastics, it is where their monastery is
For yogīs, it is where their cave is
For scholars, it is where their books are
For temple slaves, it is where their dharma center is
For singers, it is their voice
For the realized, it is nowhere
Home is just a habit
When searched for, home is a state of mind
For the mind, it is here and now
Make your mind your home
So that you never need or can lose any other
How dare you?
Dare to leap from the past, the future, and the present into nowness
Dare to leap from all over the place to nowhere
Dare to leap from whenever to no time
Dare to not leap back
Be prepared to be unprepared
Dare to ground yourself in groundlessness
Dare to face your mind’s own face without make-up
Don’t bring anything at all, especially not yourself
Drop all your agendas
Just come naked, as you are
Space spaces out into infinite spaciousness,
vibrant and full of fresh air
Mind faints into mind-lessness
Radiance without a source embraces its own transparency
Take off your glasses and dare to look without seeing anything
Dare to have the fuses of sophistication’s network blown
Relishing appearance’s clarity is awareness undone all by itself
Dare to grant mind the space to be a mind in,
the rainbow dance of unrestrained playfulness enjoying itself
Brabrand, August 15, 2004.
I and Me
Don’t be so puffed up,
said the sky to the clouds,
I'm everywhere within you and all around
Don’t feel you are moving anywhere,
said the ocean to the waves,
you are just wrinkles on my face
Don’t be so hard on yourself,
said the water to the ice,
just go with the flow
Don’t be so high up there,
said Earth to planet ego,
just come down
Don’t be so self-assured,
said luminosity to the afflictions,
you are just my daydream
Brabrand, May 26, 2006.
Homeless Home
Akaniṣṭha, this palace of the dharmadhātu,
free of directions, without middle or end, the nonabiding abode,
profound peaceful, nondiscursive, luminous, unconditioned,
the place of mind as such—awareness—resting at ease
It is free of the time of the four times, the expanse beyond mind
Among pure realms, the realm of the tathāgata heart is amazing
Walk on the path without any path! Abide in the unreachable abode!
Ground, path, and fruition inseparable—great freedom from anything to do
Not bound by anyone, free of bondage,
there isn’t anything that is bound either
It’s nothing but thoughts clinging to a self
Look for real and the knots in the sky are undone!
འོག་མིན་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་ནི །།
ཕྱོགས་བྲལ་མཐའ་དབུས་མེད་པས་མི་གནས་གནས །།
ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས །།
སེམས་ཉིད་རིག་པ་ངལ་གསོའི་ས་གནས་བྲལ །།
དུས་བཞི་དུས་བྲལ་མཉམ་ཉིད་བློ་འདས་ཀློང་ །
ཞིང་ཁམས་ནང་ནས་བདེ་སྙིང་ཁམས་རྨད་བྱུང་ །
ལམ་མེད་ལམ་བགྲོད་བགྲོད་མེད་གནས་ལ་གནས །།
གཞི་ལམ་འབྲས་བུ་དབྱེར་མེད་བྱ་བྲལ་ཆེ །།
སུས་ཀྱང་མི་བཅིངས་འཆིང་དང་བྲལ །།
བཅིང་བར་བྱ་ཡང་ཡོད་མ་ཡིན །།
རྣམ་རྟོག་བདག་ལ་འཛིན་པར་ཟད །།
ནན་གྱིས་ལྟ་དང་མཁའ་ལ་བདུད་པ་གྲོལ །།
Salem, July 13, 2019.
Jewel in the Lotus
Goodbye and new beginning
Birth and death
Straw and sprout
Harmony and destruction
Searching and not finding
More searching, then discovering
Thinking and not feeling
Feeling and not thinking
Slip out from time and space
and have us blending,
defenselessly entering your light
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Outer perceived objects are like rainbows around the sun—appearances’ see-through vivid dance
The inner perceiving mind flickers like sparkling shooting stars—a lucid display of sweet nothings
When the dazzling holograms of objects are kissed by mind’s luminous sparks,
they both faint within the embrace of bliss-emptiness
Seattle, 19. 11. 2017.
Little Ego’s Maṇḍala
Little ego circumambulates the fivefold maṇḍala,
arriving at the eastern door, and knocks
Nothing happens, ego gets upset
There, the door swings open
and little ego’s little beauty mirror is shattered
into a million pieces by vajra wisdom
They swirl in a sparkling dance,
just to merge into the still blue waters of Akṣobhya’s crystal mind,
its surface embellished by blooming lotus flowers of loving kindness,
beholding you like all buddhas’ wide open eyes
Ego crawls out from this vajra-ocean,
stumbling to the next gate in the south:
“I easily got into the first one,
so this second is no match for me”
Indeed, it opens right away,
only to swallow little ego whole
in Ratnasambhava’s infinite bounty, equality’s golden space,
pervaded by the fertile dew of ever-good vibrations,
cherished by heavenly scents,
and adorned with garlands of immaculate freshness
Ego, feeling so impoverished, proceeds to the western gate:
“I really hope there is a refill for me from this one now”
Poor thing, the red blaze of Amitābha’s lotus incinerates it, leaving no trace,
soaked in the warm breath of unbearable compassion,
illuminated by wisdom’s brilliant lamp,
and enchanted by the melodious sound of emptiness
Ego rises like phenix from the ashes, heading north:
“I surely will conquer this one and make it mine”
Lost again it is, in Amoghasiddhi’s dazzling hurricane of all-accomplishment
From its green eye, Tārā’s swift dance drives it home to you
Nurtured by the delicate food of meditation,
its unstoppable waves all-pervading like an irresistible fragrance
“I had it,” little ego grieves, “forget about the central gate,
“My own little space will do for me”
Nothing works here, it has to find:
within no middle, no end, no up or down,
the queen of vajra-space embraces Vairocana’s vast expanse,
sheer potential full of emptiness,
beaming union of all colors’ luminosity,
the wheel of openness beyond space and time
Gampo Abbey, April 6, 2003.
The Lotus Lake
In the middle of the lotus lake of Dhanakośa,
it is the youthful Lotus-born Guru who shines
All around him, the students’ lotus hearts open
and sip the nectar of his mind that’s beyond taste
The vajra saṃgha connects as the body of the guru,
their speech is the unimpeded command of the guru,
and their minds are completely free of hope and fear
Don’t hesitate, the present moment is all you’ve got!
Seattle, 18. 12. 2023.
Madhyamaka revolution
Breathe the form of Madhyamaka — open sky
Feel the sound of Madhyamaka — roaring silence
Open up to the touch of Madhyamaka — letting go
Be thrilled by the taste of Madhyamaka — equality´s variety
Get soaked within the scent of Madhyamaka — freedom innate
Resistance is liberation
No point in fighting
You are all surrounded by yourself
Give up the surroundings
Don’t defend your
headquarters
And conquer the
citadel
of
self-surrender
Hamburg, 30. 06. 2002.
Magical Mind
Appearances that dawn in a flickering fashion
are a display that is like an illusion or a dream
Look at the illusionist—your own mind!
Clinging to duality is liberated as the expanse of nonduality,
and that expanse of nonduality itself is nothing but luminosity
སྣང་བ་ཧྲལ་ཧྲོལ་ཤར་བ་རྣམས །།
སྒྱུ་མ་རྨི་ལམ་ལྟ་བུའི་རྩལ །།
སྒྱུ་མཁན་རང་གི་སེམས་ལ་ལྟོས །།
གཉིས་འཛིན་གཉིས་མེད་དབྱིངས་སུ་གྲོལ །།
གཉིས་མེད་དབྱིངས་རང་འོད་གསལ་ཉིད །
Bellingham, July 23, 2013.
Namo Guru
Your penetrating gaze—
the gate to the open sky of your luminous mind in which all sorrow evaporates
Your speech of equality—
the melodious river that quells the thirst of our questioning mind
Your loving eyes—
the lamp that outshines the darkness of our confusion and self-concern
Your powerful mudrās—
the blessing that cuts right through all our mental chatter
May our little minds faint in the vastness of your body, speech, and mind!
Meditation?
If you need to muster efforts to meditate,
you have not gained certainty about the four thoughts that turn the mind from samsara,
which is a sign of being attached to happiness conjoined with desire
If you cling to the experience of inner bliss in meditation,
it is a sign you cannot distinguish experience and realization
If you engage in meditation without second thoughts,
it is a sign you do not want to get rid of suffering and produce happiness
and that you honestly engage in the path
Since what you become familiar with is perfect, there is nothing to meditate
Since there is nothing to meditate, there is no meditator either
Since there is no meditator, the periods between sessions vanish on their own
Equality sparkles within the expanse of luminosity—
this is the sign that buddhahood is beyond signs
Mountain Climbing
You complain about the unending up and down,
when you climb over the mountains:
“First I climb up
And then down again,
Then up a new mountain—
Where is anything gained here?”
Even if you go downhill,
it brings you closer to your destination
Even if you lose height,
you are closer to your goal
than on the last summit
The vast openness of the summit view you can only appreciate
by being familiar with the narrowness and depths of the valleys
Can you imagine mountains without valleys,
days without nights,
life without death,
resting without movement?
How would you recognize the summits,
if you forget the valleys?
Thus, descend into them
and you will realize your destination there
My Holiday Retreat
I am planning on coming and going—coming to my native land and going from the Wild West
My practice during my holiday retreat will be eating, drinking, sleeping, and chatting, as well as meeting and parting
I need no instructions on the first four practices, being completely immersed in them, but I need any advice I can get on the last two
I have a place to stay—first, the abode of my mother’s kindness and then the attic of your genuine love: the dates are open
What else could I ask for?
Seattle, November 21, 2007.
Madhyamaka
May the center without middle and extremes be flooded by the sunlight of unbearable compassion
May the glaciers of self-indulgence melt away in its warming rays
and dissolve into the ocean of the pure expanse without reference point
May the dew of this luminous open infinity let the lotus in the heart of all sentient beings bloom
Brabrand, Dezember 2001.
Namo Guru II
I bow down to the Guru Vajradhara,
the wonderful performer of vajra dance and song,
the great play of the three kāyas’ luminosity,
the emptiness that has a heart of compassion
Ich verneige mich vor dem Guru Vajradhara,
dem wunderbaren Darsteller von Vajra-Tanz und -Gesang,
dem grossen Spiel der drei Kāyas lichten Klarseins,
der Leerheit, die ein Herz aus Mitgefühl hat
སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན །།
འོད་གལ་སྐུ་གསུམ་རོལ་པ་ཆེ །།
རྡོ་རྗེ་མགུར་གར་སྟོན་མཁན་མཚར །།
རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་བླ་མར་འདུད །།
Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Österreich, 05. 08. 2022.
Naturally-Free Tārā’s Wisdom Dance
Originated from the expanse of the wisdom that is self-arising,
Tārā, free in herself, dances her great dance of innate presence
It is the maṇḍala of self-appearing ecstasy that keeps dawning
This awareness, which is so lucid all by itself, is E MA HO!
རང་བྱུང་ཡེ་ཤེས་དབྱིངས་ལས་བྱུང་ །།
རང་གྲོལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་གར་ཆེན་ཁྲབ །།
རང་སྣང་དགའ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་ཤར །།
རང་གསལ་རིག་པ་ཨེ་མ་ཧོ །།
München, 09. 09. 2023.
Neither Nor Nor Neither
Neither middle, nor fringe, nor anything in between
Neither something nor nothing
Neither someone nor no one
Neither empty nor nonempty
Neither “me” nor “mine”
Neither holy nor profane
Neither PC nor outrageous
Neither diverse nor WASP
Neither -ism nor non-ism
Neither values nor “everything goes”
Neither space nor claustrophobia
Neither luminosity nor gloom
Neither appearance nor disappearance
Neither rigpa nor marigpa
Neither ordinary mind nor special mind
Neither mind nor matter
Neither mind the gap nor gap the mind
Neither wisdom nor ignorance
Neither tight nor loose
Neither relaxed nor tense
Neither pretense nor intense
Neither sentence nor silence
Neither past tense nor future tense
Neither dense nor light
Neither fight nor flight
Neither kite nor mite
Neither lite nor bite
Neither display nor delay
Neither honey nor razor blade
Neither bliss nor agony
Neither union nor onion
Neither happiness nor crappiness
Neither mountain nor valley
Neither vajra nor padma
Neither buddha nor sentient being
Neither nor nor neither
Neither neither-nor nor either-or
Neither gold nor ore
Neither door nor core
Neither more nor less
Neither sin nor virtue
Neither credit nor discredit
Neither tame nor wild
Neither blame nor child
Neither monkey nor donkey
Neither squirrel nor sorrel
Neither freak nor bleak
Neither chaser nor chased
Neither hunter nor deer
Neither monk nor lay
Neither nun nor pay
Neither sex nor ex
Still waiting for something to come here?
You better wait for the bus then
Kamern, May 1, 2018.
No Philosophy
May the blaze of self-sprung primordial awareness,
which illuminates the view, spread like wildfire
throughout the space of mind’s cloudless openness,
in which all philosophical speculations never left any trace
Hamburg, May 2001.
Nothing Ever Moves
If there exists no movement whatsoever,
where would a place of moving or directions of moving be?
The triad of mover, moved, and moving
is the single, immovable inseparability of expanse and awareness
གཡོ་བ་གང་ཡང་མེད་ན་ནི །།
གཡོ་ས་གཡོ་ཕྱོགས་ག་བ་ཡོད །།
གཡོ་བྱེད་གཡོ་བྱ་གཡོ་བ་གསུམ །།
གཡོ་མེད་དབྱིངས་རིག་དབྱེར་མེད་གཅིག །
Munich, 17.06.2025, a day with a lot of inner and outer movement.
On the Road Again
May all beings never turn their backs to their primordial eyrie,
this indifferentiable ground of luminosity’s expanse without location
But if they do, may they soar through its groundlessness
by leaving no trace on the grounds and paths,
just as an eagle’s travel leaves no footprints in the sky
May they achieve the fruition of natural ease after their sightseeing tour of the invisible
Hamburg, May 7, 2002.
One More Thought
One more thought
One more chance
Neither take it nor leave it
Look nakedly at thoughts’ costumes
Rest in movement
Move in resting
Awareness knows no breaks
The sun of luminosity shines through the forest of thoughts,
the interplay of light and leaves in the breeze of wakefulness
Welcome to the heartland of ordinary mind!
Pollutri, May 30, 2022.
Perfect and Imperfect Great Perfection
Perfect other-appearance and imperfect self-appearance are equal
In the great perfection, there is neither perfection nor imperfection
In the alpha-purity that is free from perfection and imperfection,
all masters and students are innately present rigpa’s dynamic energy
རྫོགས་དང་མ་རྫོགས་རྫོགས་ཆེན་པོ །།
གཞན་སྣང་རྫོགས་པ་རང་སྣང་མ་རྫོགས་མཉམ །།
རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོར་རྫོགས་དང་མ་རྫོགས་མེད །།
རྫོགས་དང་མ་རྫོགས་བྲལ་བའི་ཀ་དག་ལ །།
དཔོན་སློབ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་རིག་པའི་རྩལ །།
Kampo Gangra, 02. 02. 2016 (inspired by guru sending pics of “the perfect guru” and “his imperfect student”).
Praise to the Lama
Through your body, you emanate the warming glow of love and compassion
and revive sentient beings who are frozen through their rigid thoughts
Through your speech, you fully satisfy all mother-like beings who starve in saṃsāra’s ocean
with the sweet dharma-waters of great bliss and one taste
Through your mind’s blessing, like the rays of clear sun light filling the sky,
you open the lotus in the hearts of beings wandering in the darkness of not seeing their own true face
Requesting an Audience With the Great Mother
I bow to the Great Mother Prajñāpāramitā, the Lady Emptiness who has a heart of compassion
In the mansion of the five skandhas,
you search for the rabbit horn of your self
If you look well, there is nothing to be seen,
but if you are not mindful, it pierces your heart
The borderlines between inside and outside, subject and object
cannot be distinguished in sheer lucid experience
Introducing an experiencer to what is experienced just vanishes—
it is mere awareness free from dualistic clinging
All existence, non-existence, both, and neither
sinks into the space of emptiness
At that point, even the reference point of space melts into space
If there is no reference point, complete openness is experienced
The mere dependent origination of various proliferations
appears as the haze in the expanse free from proliferation
Illusory lions feast on illusory deer, starving to death—
through the proliferations of analysis, both proliferations and remedies are free
Profound, peaceful, unconditioned luminosity free of proliferations
sends empty-appearing messengers in each and every moment
In each and every moment, we do not encounter empty awareness,
so we turn away from the pure land of bliss-emptiness, searching it elsewhere
On the stainless canvas of primordially luminous space,
the pen of dualistic clinging draws the pictures of subject and object
With the plenty of rainbow paintings of self and others, suffering and happiness appear
Other than knots in space unraveling into space, there is no buddhahood
The swift little fish of awareness
gets itself caught up in the net of your thoughts
Let go and relax the illusory net of imagination,
and the brilliant display of awareness blazes from within
ཡུམ་ཆེན་མོའི་མཇལ་ཀ་ཞུ་བ །།
ཡུམ་ཆེན་མོ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་མ་སྟོང་ཉིད་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྙིང་པོ་ཅན་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ །།
ཕུང་པོ་ལྔའི་ཁང་པ་ལ །།
བདག་གི་རི་བོང་རྭ་དེ་ཚོལ །།
ལེགས་པར་ལྟ་ན་མཐོང་རྒྱུ་མེད །།
དྲན་པ་མེད་ན་རང་སྙིང་འབིགས །།
ཕྱི་ནང་ཡུལ་དང་ཡུལ་ཅན་མཚམས །།
གསལ་མྱོང་ཙམ་ལ་དབྱེ་བྱར་མེད །།
མྱོང་བྱར་མྱོང་བྱེད་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ཡལ །།
གཉིས་འཛིན་བྲལ་བའི་རིག་པ་ཙམ །།
ཡོད་མེད་གཉིས་ཀ་གཉིས་མེད་ཀུན །།
སྟོང་ཉིད་ནམ་མཁར་ནུབ་པའི་ཚེ །།
ནམ་མཁའི་དམིགས་པའང་ནམ་མཁར་ཞུ །།
དམིགས་པ་མེད་ན་གུ་ཡངས་མྱོང་ །
སྤྲོས་པ་མི་འདྲའི་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཙམ །།
སྤྲོས་བྲལ་དབྱིངས་སུ་ཁུག་སྣར་ཤར །།
སྒྱུའི་སེང་རི་དྭགས་ཟ་ནས་དཀྲེས་ཏེ་ཤི །།
དཔྱད་པའི་སྤྲོས་པས་སྤྲོས་གཉེན་གཉིས་ཀ་གྲོལ །།
འོད་གསལ་ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས །།
སྐད་ཅིག་རེ་རེར་སྣང་སྟོང་ཕོ་ཉ་གཏོང་ །
སྐད་ཅིག་རེ་རེར་རིག་སྟོང་མ་མཇལ་ཕྱིར །།
བདེ་སྟོང་ཞིང་ཁམས་ལས་ལོག་གཞན་དུ་ཚོལ །།
ནམ་མཁའི་ཤོག་བུ་དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་ལ །།
གཉིས་འཛིན་སྨྱུག་གུས་ཡུལ་དང་ཡུལ་ཅན་རི་མོ་དྲི །།
བདག་གཞན་བདེ་སྡུག་འཇའ་ཚོན་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཤར །།
ནམ་མཁའི་མདུད་པ་ནམ་མཁར་གྲོལ་ལས་སངས་རྒྱས་མེད །།
རིག་པའི་ཉ་ཆུང་མགྱོགས་པོ་འདི །།
རྣམ་རྟོག་དྲྭ་བར་རང་གིས་བཅིངས །།
རྟོག་པའི་སྒྱུ་དྲྭ་ལྷོད་ཀྱིས་གློད །།
རིག་པའི་མདངས་རྩལ་ནང་ནས་འབར །།
Gampo Abbey, June 15, 2001.
Rigpa’s Open Sky
The essence of the mind is serene openness
The essence is the all-encompassing spacious expanse
The spacious expanse is the center of the sun’s luminosity
Luminosity is the dynamic energy of awareness’s one taste
སེམས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོ་ཆམ་མེ་བ །།
སྙིང་པོ་མཁའ་དབྱིངས་ཁྱབ་བརྡལ་ཆེ །།
མཁའ་དབྱིངས་ཉི་མའི་དཀྱིལ་འོད་གསལ །།
འོད་གསལ་རིག་པའི་རོ་ཅིག་རྩལ །།
Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, 02. 09. 2022.
Sengito’s Way
Friendly fearlessness
Rock-solid stubbornness
Big brown eyes looking into both his and your heart
Frolicking in curious nowness
Playful wakefulness darting through space
Letting go with a deep breath
Small body, big mind
Relaxing into the ground of no worry
Lion is not a matter of size or looks—
it is a state of mind
Brabrand, May 26, 2006.
Sky Pilot
Through the heavenly expanse of empty, open vastness,
I travel in my airship of brightly radiant awareness
My two wings are method and wisdom,
and my fuselage is great compassion
My safe and steady flight grants my generosity
My checklist is the ethics of a bodhisattva
My carrying capacity lies in tireless patience
My propulsion comes from joyful effort without strain
My rudder is thought-free, one-pointed meditation
My navigation is supreme understanding without self
My pilot’s code is to cross the oceans of suffering with all beings
and to land once again with them on the firm ground of their buddha being
My home base is the heart of all buddhas,
my course is the five paths and the ten grounds,
and my destination is the mind here and now
The contrails of the flights of my thoughts dissolve
into the luminous vastness without center and end—
they are no more than the traces of a bird in the sky
The clouds of mental afflictions remain behind me,
and the sun of all-illuminating primordial awareness
completely dispels the veils of ignorance
Without the flight plan and radio chatter of thoughts,
without any effortful steering or maneuvering,
the autopilot of my innate wisdom fulfills
its ever-perfect, all-accomplishing function—
it lets us fly ever farther and farther,
and brings all others along with us
Nagold, March 17, 1999; for Conrad.
Sunrise
When fortunate students drink the profound nectar of the ocean of songs
of male and female siddhas, just like a person parched in the desert,
within the natural state of the pellucid fresh daybreak of calm abiding,
the sun of recognition of superior insight blazes in the center of the heart
ཕོ་མོ་གྲུབ་ཐོབ་མགུར་མཚོའི་བདུད་རྩི་ཟབ །།
སྐལ་སློབ་བྱེ་ཐང་སྐོམ་བཞིན་འཐུང་བའི་ཚེ །།
ཞི་གནས་ཐོ་རངས་དྭངས་པ་སོ་མའི་ངང་ །
ལྷག་མཐོང་ངོ་ཤེས་ཉི་མ་སྙིང་དབུས་འབར །།
Kathmandu, 25. 04. 2019.
Swirling Rigpa
So many swirls on this ocean of rigpa,
beautiful to behold and yet just awareness in motion
Swirling and swirling, stillness pervades all motion
Motion and stillness are one in the ground of awareness
Bellingham, July 30, 2013.
The Alphabet of Rigpa
When the moisture of blessings and experience
is absorbed into the letters written in ink on paper,
they rise everywhere as the cloud banks of the ground manifestations,
showering down the rain of the tiny droplets of the reading mind
into to their source, the infinite ocean of the primordial ground,
letting them splash into awareness’s alpha-pure spaciousness,
which is permeated by the waves of innate presence—
so amazing is the radiant play of compassionate resonance’s dynamic energy!
ཤོག་བུར་བྲིས་པའི་ནག་ཚའི་ཡི་གེ་ལ །།
བྱིན་རླབས་ཉམས་མྱོང་གཤེར་བ་འཇིབས་པ་ན །།
གཞི་སྣང་གྱི་ནི་སྤྲིན་ཚོགས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ལངས །།
ཀློག་པའི་སེམས་ཀྱི་ཐིག་ཕྲའི་ཆར་པ་ནི །།
འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ཡེ་གཞིའི་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་ནང་དུ་འབབས །།
ལྷུན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པའི་རྦ་རླབས་ཁྱབ་པ་ཡི །།
རིག་པའི་ཀ་དག་ཀློང་ལ་ཤག་ཤག་བྱེད །།
ཐུགས་རྗེའི་རྩོལ་གྱི་མདངས་རོལ་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ །།
Seattle, October 13, 2016, after having translated Jigme Lingpa’s commentary on “The Aspiration of Samantabhadra.”
The Desert is Alive
May all wanderers in the scorched sands of saṃsāra uncover their innate awakened hearts
and find unexcelled relief in the refreshing oasis of the expanse’s compassionate display
In particular, may the fearless lion’s roar of the definitive meaning that is
proclaimed by The Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje,
resound throughout the dense jungle of the six realms of existence
and grant all those who have the buddha heart the confidence to look at it!
Hamburg, 2000.
The Extreme Middle
The extremes lie in the middle,
and the middle does not lie in between
If you do not find any extremes,
the middle of nowhere is lucid and clear
But if you have found a middle,
it’s clear you found an extreme
Searching removes from the middle,
and finding does so even more
Whoever searches does not find
Whoever finds is only searching
The Dance of Rigpa
In this moment of the nature of timeless wisdom,
the playful dance of boundless compassion ever swirls,
dawning from the dynamic energy of inexpressible awareness’s essence
and loving powerless sentient beings in an all-embracing way without bias
དུས་མེད་ཡེ་ཤེས་རང་བཞིན་སྐད་ཅིག་འདིར །།
ཚད་མེད་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་རོལ་གར་རྟག་ཏུ་འཁྱིལ །།
བརྗོད་མེད་རིག་པའི་ངོ་བོའི་རྩལ་ལས་ཤར །།
དབང་མེད་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་ཕྱོགས་བྲལ་བརྩེ །།
Seattle, January 21, 2019.
The Gaping Gap
Out of the primordial ground of awareness’s own glow,
the opera of unawareness keeps unfolding
In the gap between awareness and unawareness,
may mind’s own face be seen!
རིག་པའི་ཡེ་གཞིའི་རང་མདངས་ལས །།
མ་རིག་པ་ཡི་ཟློས་གར་རྒྱས །།
རིག་དང་མ་རིག་གཉིས་ཀྱི་བར །།
སེམས་ཀྱི་རང་ངོ་མཐོང་བར་ཤོག །
Seattle, 12. 11. 2018.
The Ground
The single indifferentiable ground where self-appearance and other-appearance do not appear,
alpha purity, innate presence, essence, nature, and the display of compassionate responsiveness,
this prime awareness that is primordially free, nakedly free, free in itself, and free from extremes
constitutes the youthful kāya within a vase, the jewel casket of all the buddhas in their entirety
རང་སྣང་གཞན་སྣང་མི་སྣང་དབྱེར་མེད་གཞི་གཅིག་པུ
ཀ་དག་ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ངོ་བོ་རང་བཞིན་ཐུགས་རྗེའི་རྩལ
རིག་པ་ཡེ་གྲོལ་གཅེར་གྲོལ་རང་གྲོལ་མཐའ་གྲོལ་འདི
གཞོན་ནུ་བུམ་སྐུ་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀུན་གྱི་རིན་ཆེན་ཟ་མ་ཏོག
Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, 28. 08. 2022.
The Hidden Land
In the center of the hidden land of our innermost heart,
the tree of great bliss floats in the sky of emptiness and awareness,
the birds of appearance and emptiness nest in its leaves and branches,
and the magnificent sun of luminosity emptiness lights up everything
This land is as hidden as a rope is by a snake—
hidden within the darkness of nonrecognition,
yet reflected in the eye of self-aware wisdom
that penetrates to the core of all experiences,
revealing everything that remains hidden
and hiding all that wants to reveal itself
The hidden does not want to remain hidden,
but the biggest hider of all keeps hiding it
Please hide no more, you hidden land!
Let us beggars visit you in your beauty and abundance!
We call you ordinary mind, basic awareness, or buddha nature,
but you are nameless, blameless, frameless, and shameless—
please stop hiding and grant us the visa of recognition!
Munich, Restaurant cuno b, 5.1.2022 (inspired by reading about Khenpo Gangshar’s life).
The Kiss of Rigpa
I want to see this rigpa
I need to get it down
Please give me this rigpa
I’m losing my mind
I’ll do anything—
even doing nothing
somebody come help me
with me and my mind
Oh rigpa, I love you so!
Why don’t you show your face to me?
I am so desperate,
so don’t just leave me hanging there!
Rigpa says: “Please listen
to what I have to say!
It’s not that I’m playing
hard to get with you
I’ve always been with you
in all your hells and heavens
You’re just to dumb to get it,
blocking all my calls
Please let me be what I am,
don’t lay your trip on me!
Find me within your heart
and then my kiss will set you free!”
Kathmandu, February 2017.
The Three Yānas
Profound, peaceful, discursive-free, luminous, and unconditioned:
The general view of no-self represents the common path of peace
Emptiness—prajñāpāramitā—is the Madhyamaka path free of extremes
Four abhiṣekas, creation, perfection, ordinary mind, rigpa’s dynamic play—
the primordial ground of all is the cloudless sky of the tathāgata heart
ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས །།
བདག་མེད་སྤྱི་ལྟ་ཞི་བའི་ལམ་ཐུན་མོང་ །།
སྟོང་ཉིད་ཤེར་ཕྱིན་མཐའ་བྲལ་དབུ་མའི་ལམ །།
དབང་བཞི་བསྐྱེད་རྫོགས་ཐ་མལ་ཤེས་པ་རིག་པའི་རྩལ །།
ཀུན་གྱི་ཡེ་གཞི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་སྤྲིན་མེད་མཁའ །།
Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, 27.08.2022. Inspired by a famous stanza from the Lalitavistarasūtra:
Profound, peaceful, free of discursiveness, luminous, and
unconditioned, I have found this dharma that is like nectar
To whoever I were to teach it, they couldn’t understand it
Hence, I shall remain in silence in the middle of the forest
ཟབ་ཞི་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་འོད་གསལ་འདུས་མ་བྱས
ཆོས་ཀྱི་བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུ་ཁོ་བོ་རྙེད
སུ་ལ་བསྟན་ཀྱང་གོ་བར་མི་ནུས་པས
མི་སྨྲ་ནགས་ཀྱི་གསེབ་ཏུ་གནས་པར་བྱ
and Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche’s comments (“profound” = identitylessness; “peaceful” = the path of peace; “free of discursiveness” = emptiness; “luminous, and unconditioned” = the Vajrayāna).
The Winter Larch
Now, the larch outside my window
stands all in yellow
It glows like the sun of a winter evening,
burns and blazes
radiating the abundant fire of the summer
and filling my heart on these cold November days
with the thick, dripping honey of light
May my bee-like attempts at storing a few drops of luminosity in this life
melt into the honey-ocean of ground-luminosity at death
May it fill my heart so cold with fear
with its resplendent, warming glow
May I relish the sweetness of dharmakaya’s expanse
Thought Leap
Moon shining inaccessibly as ice
The trees’ shadows flitting through me
The cold creeping around me much too silent
Like a stab, every one of my gazes opens
a tiny hole in the world’s night cloak,
not holding me in its embrace anymore
Yet still too short the leap, too weak the eye
Alone with my hope, I am awake again
Three Things Needed in Mahāmudrā
Your own mind is the buddha itself—don’t look for anything else
Thoughts are dharmakāya—settle in their sheer vanishing point
Afflictions are wisdom—the dance of intrinsic dynamic energy
This summarizes the three main points of all mahāmudrā practices
རང་སེམས་སངས་རྒྱས་རང་ཡིན་གཞན་མ་ཚོལ །།
རྣམ་རྟོག་ཆོས་སྐུ་ཡལ་ས་ཙམ་ལ་ཞོག །
ཉོན་མོངས་ཡེ་ཤེས་རང་ཆས་རྩལ་གྱི་གར །།
ཕྱག་ཆེན་ཉམས་ལེན་ཀུན་གྱི་གཙོ་གསུམ་བསྡུས །།
Bellingham, July 13, 2017.
Time Out
The place is here
The time is now
Here is your mind
Now is the gap
Your mind is the guru
The gap is its blessing
The guru is letting be
The blessing is lucidity’s vibrant dance
Letting be is when mind cannot be but undistracted
Lucidity is its being embraced by the ravishing beauty of emptiness
Nondistraction is shamatha
Relishing this passionate embrace is vipashyana
Shamatha is the eye of the hurricane
Vipashyana is its gaze
The eye seeing itself is their union, awareness kissing expanse
All of this is just bullshit
Check it out for yourself
Seattle, Nalanda West, June 16.
Two Stanzas on the Dharmadhātu
The luminous sky of the dharmadhātu
is pervaded by the vast dance of the clouds
of desire, hatred, and ignorance
Enjoy the changeless buddha heart!
The natural state of the bodiless, empty, lucid dharmadhātu
is veiled by illusory appearances of happiness and suffering
By realizing the ways of being and appearing being in sync,
may all sentient beings come to recognize their own face!
ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ནམ་མཁའ་འོད་གསལ་བར །།
འདོད་ཆགས་ཞེ་སྡང་གཏི་མུག་གི །
སྤྲིན་གྱི་གར་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བས་ཁྱབ །།
འགྱུར་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོར་རོལ །།
ཆོས་དབྱིངས་ལུས་མེད་སྟོང་གསལ་ངང་ །
བདེ་སྡུག་འཆར་སྣང་སྒྱུ་མས་སྒྲིབ །།
གནས་ལུགས་སྣང་ལུགས་མཐུན་རྟོགས་པས །།
འགྲོ་ཀུན་རང་ངོ་ཤེས་གྱུར་ཅིག །
Boulder, July 9, 2023.
Utpattikrama
Self-visualization, front visualization, and your own mind—
if you hold these three to be different, the waters of thinking gush rapidly
At the time when the flowers of experience and realization
of these three aspects unfold as self-awareness’s own radiance,
self-experience of your own mind’s innate bliss blazes forth
བདག་བསྐྱེད་མདུན་བསྐྱེད་རང་སེམས་གསུམ །།
ཐ་དད་འཛིན་ན་རྟོག་ཆུ་མྱུར་དུ་འབབ །།
རྣམ་གསུམ་ཉམས་རྟོགས་མེ་ཏོག་རྣམས །།
རང་རིག་རང་མདངས་རྒྱས་པའི་དུས །།
རང་སེམས་ལྷན་སྐྱེས་བདེ་བ་རང་མྱོང་འབར །།
Wake-Up Calls
Every pain and every pleasure,
every love and every loneliness,
every passion and every hatred,
every meeting and every separation
wake me up and reveal me
in the bright light without shadows
Is this shine too blinding, too brilliant, sir?
Wanting shadow’s dim comfort and sleep’s ignorant snuggliness,
I press the snooze-button aga and again
Why do I stick to this childish hope that the guru lets me get away with this?
The thousand suns of his appearances blaze right into my eyes,
The thundering dance beat of the ghetto blasters of his vajra speech shatters my ears
The smell of his fearlessness bites into my nose
The taste of his so innocent humor tickles my tongue
A tidal wave of cold-water blessing flushes me out of bed
Vajra mind catches me on the wrong foot again and again:
merciless compassion never forsakes me
Weather Report
The proud and mighty Titanic of ego-clinging crashes into the iceberg of apparent reality with full speed
The passenger of your mind drowns rapidly in the dark vortex of the afflictions
Let yourself be taken to the eye of this ferocious hurricane
and reappear within its serene stillness
In the midst of the ocean’s ever-moving fluidity, icebergs freeze into solid pain
Let the little fish of awareness playfully move through the depths of mind’s soothing clear waters
The sky’s ever-radiating nakedness becomes dressed up in the dull rags of heavy clouds,
so come as you are and get a tan from the dazzling rays of utter openness
Raging storms of anger and fury
alternate with the stifling heat of passion and desire
Ignorance means the total eclipse of your heart—
so rest at ease within emptiness’s light compassionate breath
On the sky’s canvas, the sun rays’ feather paints rainbows as fleeting sketches
Taking a close look at them, you find neither beginning nor end,
and what would their middle be other than luminous spaciousness?
If you take a close look at the vivid display of multi-colored appearances
and thoughts that emerge and dissolve in your mind,
what else besides the luminous expanse of open awareness do you spot?
Gampo Abbey, March 26, 2002.
Wild Kleshas
Klesha living
is easy to do
The things that ego wanted
karma bought them for me
Graceful Lady,
You know who I am
You know I can’t let you
slide through my hands
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
You watched me suffer
in my emotions’ hurricane
Now you’ve decided
to show me its eye
No meditation,
no fabrications too
could make me distracted
or treat You unkind
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
I know I saw you,
spacious, luminous, aware
Now, I have my freedom,
but there’s no one who would care
Faith must struck your raw heart
Tears must be cried
Let’s do some living
after we have died
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
Wild kleshas, couldn’t drag me away
Wild, wild kleshas, we’ll ride them some day
Lyrics adapted from Wild Horses (by Jagger/Richards), as inspired by Dzogchen Ponlop, Rinpoche, September 21, 2001.
Night
Night, you are silent in your old way
Night, you look at me so quietly
Star, you shine as the dragons glance
Star, you warm me like a smiling eye
Night, you give me dwelling and shelter
Night, you enwrap and understand me
In you, I am able to see again
and understand everywhere I like
Father death and mother love—
you two are never found tired
Butterfly
You open so many doors,
but you never enter any
Opening the doors is more important
than entering and being inside
You are living in a room
that only consist of doors
However, you stay neither
on the inside nor the outside
There is also a draft in your room,
as you can’t close the doors anymore
You catch small glimpses of all
that lies behind these open doors
Sometimes you see, hear, and feel
what the life there might be like
But once you have sniffed around a bit,
you realize the next door opens easily too
And thus you keep fluttering on,
which is why I call you butterfly
City
Stream of thousands of passions
Ocean of thousands of fears
I am bathing in your surf,
when I come to visit you
Sweep me off my feet, stir me up,
push me forward, drive me in your arms
But leave me sane—
don’t get too close to me
You would destroy me,
and maybe I would like it
Beginning
Water and stone
Beginning of life
Form and change
You create all growth
Can you see the green in the snow field?
Can you grasp the moss in granite?
You must go back to the source
There you will see all beginning
At home
Concrete deserts instead of mountains
Highways instead of rocky paths
Words instead of feelings
Business instead of work
Sparrows instead of eagles
Conflicts instead of unity
Silence instead of stillness
Exhaust fumes instead of cloud ships
Administration instead of growth
Melancholy instead of laughter
Moderation instead of eruptions
Thinking instead of seeing
Where do you want to belong?
Where are you at home?
And whom can you invite there?
Kann ich anders?
Übe ich durch die Fülle von Ursachen und Bedingungen
zusammen mit den Dharmafreunden meines Herzens Hören, Nachdenken und Meditation,
kann der Lotus meines Herzens nicht anders, als sich zu öffnen,
und der süsse Duft unerträglicher Liebe und Freude erfüllt meinen Geist
Sehe ich das Anhaften an wirklicher Existenz dieser wie Rauch verfliegenden Gedanken
bei all den Lebewesen, die mit mir verbunden sind
und vom Leid der Zerstreuung im Getriebe auf dem Marktplatz dieser Welt gequält werden,
können Traurigkeit und Mitgefühl nicht anders, als sich zu regen
Begegne ich dem Gebirge des erhabenen, handlungsfreien Körpers des Gurus,
kann der offene Geist für den liebevollen Beschützer nicht anders, als sich zu erheben
Dringt die klangvolle Melodie seiner Rede wie ein Fluss aus Gold an mein Ohr,
können Vertrauen, freudige Anstrengung und Verständnis nicht anders, als anzuwachsen
Erlebe ich für einen Augenblick die Möglichkeiten seines Geistes glückseliger Weite, Erkenntnis und Güte,
kann die Ausdruckskraft der Glückseligkeit meines eigenen Geistes nicht anders, als hell aufzuleuchten
Demonstriert er Nutzen und Qualitäten gleich dem Spiel von Regenbögen, die aus einem Kristall zum Vorschein kommen,
kann sehnsuchtsvolles Vertrauen nicht anders, als zu erblühen
Erstrahlt die Sonne der vier Arten müheloser Aktivität,
kann das zweifache Wohl von Reifung und Erfüllung nicht anders, als sich einzufinden
New Wave Musik
Ist wie mit dem Kopf durch Quarzglas fliegen
Ist wie ein Schuss in die Magengrube
Zieht den Zahn der Zeit
Ist heiss wie ein Komet
Lässt vor Kälte erzittern
Gellt wie ein Schrei durch die Nacht
Explodiert wie ein Vulkan
Packt dich wie ein Skorpion
Reisst den Bauch auf
Bläst das Hirn aus dem Schädel
Erweckt das Eingesperrte
Ruft alle deine Ungeheuer
Verbrennt dein Gefühl
Zerschlägt in Glut und Asche
Fliegt wie ein Stein durch die Fensterscheibe
Brüllt auf wie ein sterbendes Tier
Ist wie Harakiri und Geburt zugleich
Ist wie Erblühen im Eissturm
Ist wie Verglühen im Waldbrand
Darum liebe ich sie so sehr
Evening
When the city starts to breathe more slowly,
When the birds tweet their last songs
When the lights go on everywhere
Then stillness comes to you too
And you feel that now you are at home
Am Omd
Wann’d Schod langsama schnauft
Wann’d Vegal ia letzts Liadl zwitschan
Wann überoi d’Liachda ogenga
dann kimmt d’Ruah aa zu dia
dann gschbiast jetzad bist dahoam